scuttle

/ˈskʌdl/

/ˈskʌɾəl/

Other forms: scuttled; scuttling; scuttles

When you scuttle, you move with quick anxious steps, like a bug running for cover when a light is turned on.

Use the word scuttle when you want to describe running or fast walking that’s characterized by short, hasty steps, like someone or something that tries to hurry — a person who is late for work scuttling through a crowd of slow-moving pedestrians — but can't. Scuttle has a number of other meanings. As a noun, it can refer to a container for coal or a hatch on a ship. If you scuttle a plan, you cancel or undermine it.

Definitions of scuttle

1. verb

   move about or proceed hurriedly
   synonyms: scamper, scurry, skitter

   types:

   crab

   scurry sideways like a crab

   type of:

   run

   move fast by using one's feet, with one foot off the ground at any given time
2. verb

   sink a ship by creating holes in the hull
   type of:

   sink

   cause to sink
3. verb

   hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of
   synonyms: baffle, bilk, confound, cross, foil, frustrate, queer, scotch, spoil, thwart

   types:

   disappoint, let down

   fail to meet the hopes or expectations of

   dash

   destroy or break

   short-circuit

   hamper the progress of; impede

   ruin

   destroy or cause to fail

   betray, fail

   disappoint, prove undependable to; abandon, forsake

   come short, fall short

   fail to meet (expectations or standards)

   disenchant, disillusion

   free from enchantment

   undo

   cause the ruin or downfall of

   break

   cause the failure or ruin of

   shipwreck

   ruin utterly

   type of:

   forbid, foreclose, forestall, preclude, preempt, prevent

   keep from happening or arising; make impossible
4. noun

   an entrance equipped with a hatch; especially a passageway between decks of a ship
   synonyms: hatchway, opening

   types:

   escape hatch

   hatchway that provides a means of escape in an emergency

   type of:

   entrance, entranceway, entree, entry, entryway

   something that provides access (to get in or get out)
5. noun

   container for coal; shaped to permit pouring the coal onto the fire
   synonyms: coal scuttle

   type of:

   container

   any object that can be used to hold things (especially a large metal boxlike object of standardized dimensions that can be loaded from one form of transport to another)